I tore apart a 440 big block engine!!
It was actually a helluva lotta fun, once I made two trips to the auto parts store - the second time 'cause I once again forgot that you have to remove harmonic balancers from these things...
But I got it all torn down, degreased as best as I could, hosed it down, then wiped out the cylinders and greased them down real good.
Of course, I made one MAJOR error in that I completely forgot to keep the rod caps with their appropriate rods, which means I probably reduced the crank and rods to scrap metal simply by being incompetent - I was going to try to resell them.
I was going to take pictures, but it was such a chore trying to do this on my tiny porch next to my real nice stainless steel grill and on my previously-nice "astroturf" carpet - which is now soaked with 30-year-old grease stains. I'll try getting some over the 4th-of-July weekend.
I do have one quick question. Well, two actually - first, did I indeed ruin the connecting rods by swapping caps around? Second, and I should have probably asked this BEFORE I bought the thing, but I've seen a lot of big blocks with that broken starter bracket sticking off the side of the block - the bracket is there, but the outer edge of the bolt-hole is missing. Is there a common fix for this? And if so, what does it usually involve? Would the machine shop that bores, decks, and hones the block be able to fix this in most cases? I'd say 75 percent of the bolt hole is there - the engine stand is bolted to it and it's holding nicely, but obviously I want this fixed before installing a high-torque mini-starter.
I had a lot of fun. Takin' em apart is fun. Of course, putting it back together is gonna take a while! In the next month or so I plan on getting it to the machine shop to let them get to work on it. I want to have it cleaned, bagged and tagged before moving to IN. Then the real fun begins!
Jeff
